China's legislature discusses more public say in village affairs
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China's top legislature Monday began to discuss draft law amendments, designed to give rural residents greater say in village affairs.
The amendments to the Organic Law of Villagers' Committees, which would give rural people greater powers to remove village committee members and to convene meetings to decide village affairs, were submitted to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress for the third reading.
The amendments were expected to be approved during this bimonthly session that started Monday.
It allows villagers to "vote by proxy" -- entrusting a relative to vote for them -- if they are not in the village during elections. Many rural residents in China go to the cities to seek work.
The law amendments, first reviewed in December 2009, affect 900 million rural residents and focus on democratic procedures and electoral and recall procedures for village committee members.
China has more than 2 million villages and 604,000 village committees.
More than 95 percent of village committees have held direct elections since the law took effect in 1998, with most have held more than seven elections.
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